The Democratic Action Party (PAD) will initiate in February debates on a referendum aiming to introduce a direct popular vote for the election of the President and is inviting all those interested to participate, Info-Prim Neo reports. PAD president Mihai Godea told a news conference today that he intends to challenge in the Constitutional Court a number of procedural rules concerning the election of the President, in particular, a set of amendments adopted in 2010-2011 which allow Parliament to delay presidential elections over and over by relying on the notion of “within a reasonable time”. Instead, PAD will propose amendments that will clearly regulate the temporal limits for the election of the President and will clearly set out the procedure, the consequences for its violation, the consequences for boycotting the presidential vote, etc. Apart from the direct election of the President, PAD suggests that the referendum should also ask the people if the number of MPs should be reduced from 101 to 71, including 36 elected in single-member constituencies. PAD plans to organize the referendum in autumn.